“Some of the flowers… just remind me of my Mum, she loved the beautiful bold colours in the ‘70s,” Ms Davis said.

“It just took me back to that as a child and the bright colours that she used to like wearing.”

With Ms Davis were Neneh Lane-U’ren, Merle U’ren and Cathy Boag.

As Bendigo locals, the four has seized their last opportunity to see the show, and were glad they did.

“It was great, fantastic, really colourful and interesting, the history and the creativeness of the patterns,” Ms Boag said.

Like Ms Davis, Liz Hood, of Melbourne was also taken back to her earlier years.

Visiting with husband Peter Hood, she found her knowledge of the design house had grown during the exhibition.

A longtime fan of Marimekko, Ms Hood discovered herself recognising patterns from childhood that she’d never realised were the company’s.

“The bold simplicity would be what attracts me,” Ms Hood said.

“I’m more familiar with the flower motifs and things and the stripes, but some of them I didn’t realise were theirs.”

Bendigo is lucky to have so many international exhibitions visit, was the general consensus among visitors the Advertiser spoke to.

Both locals and those from Melbourne, or further afield, thought international exhibitions were a great opportunity to bring visitors to the city, and a great opportunity for locals to broaden their horizons.

“It’s really important,” said Anji Noor, of Kyneton.

“Because we’re quite sheltered here, we’re quite isolated, [it’s important] just to have access to the international culture.”

Ms Davis agreed on behalf of her group, saying that it was a good opportunity to bring people to Bendigo.

“We’re just really lucky to have so many opportunities like this in Bendigo, it really makes us the Golden City of Victoria,” Ms Davis said.